daye shulde suppe
with in the cyte. Wherfore he was ioyfull, as thoughe the victorye from
heuen had ben to him promised. And so [he] apparayled his hooste to
assaute the towne: in whiche assaute he chaunced to be taken in his
lodgynge by them of the cyte, and so bounden lyke a prysoner, they ledde
hym in to theyr cite. Thus he more disceyued by hope, than by his dreme,
supped that nyghte within the citie as a prisoner, and nat as a
conquerour, as he presumed in his mynde. Alcibiades also hadde a
certayne vision in the nyghte of his miserable ende.

This tale sheweth that dreames sometyme come to passe by one meane or
other. And he that desyreth to knowe more of dreames wrytten in our
englysshe tonge, let hym rede the tale of the nounnes preste, that G.
Chauser wrote: and for the skeles howe dreames and sweuens[189] are
caused, the begynnynge of the Boke of Fame, the whiche the sayde Chauser
compiled with many an other matter full of wysedome.

FOOTNOTES:

[186] A cant term for a bonnet.

[187] Thick bushy hair.

[188] See Brand's _Popular Antiquities_, ed. 1849, iii. 132, where Brand
cites Melton's _Astrologaster, or the Figure-Caster_, 1620, to show that
to dream of the devil and of gold was deemed an equally lucky portent.
To dream of gold is also pronounced a happy omen in the _Countryman's
Counsellor_. 1633.

+ _Of the crakynge yonge gentyll man, that wold ouerthrowe his enmyes a
myle of._ xxix.

+ A yonge gentyl man in a cite that was beseged, rebuked the other and
called them cowherdes, bycause they wolde nat issue out and fight with
their enmyes. So he armed at all peces lepte on horsebacke, and galopte
out at the gates. Whan he, thus crakynge,[190] hadde prycked on aboute
a myle, he encountred with manye, that retourned home from the
skyrmysshe sore wounded; wherfore he beganne to ryde a softer pace. But
whan he harde the hydous noyse, and sawe a myle frome hym howe fyerslye
they of the citie and theyr enmyes assayled eche other, he stode euen
stylle. Than one, that harde his crakynge before, asked hym, why he rode
no nere[r] to fyghte with their enmyes. He answered and sayde: Trewly I
fynde nat my selfe so able and stronge in armes, that my harte wyl serue
me to ryde any nere[r] to them.

Wherby may be noted, that nat onely the force of the mynde, but also of
the body, shulde be wel consydred. Nor one shulde nat bragge and bost to
do more than he maye welle atcheue. There be many, whiche with